1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to call center messaging systems and, more particularly, to an enhanced automated routing system for telephone messages in which the automatic number identification (ANI) is altered so as to provide information about the call, to direct the call to appropriate service personnel, and to offer services and products to a caller.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, when a telephone call from a consumer to an organization, such as a financial institution, is transferred from an integrated voice response (IVR) agent, an internal on-premise messaging system enables the host to keep track of the particular IVR extension from which the call was transferred, as well as the extension of the agent to which the call is transferred. The messaging system generates a screen pop that is associated with the incoming caller and inserts the caller""s account number. The information pops out to the agent""s screen to whom the call is transferred, so the agent does not have to ask the caller for the account number information again.
However, when using a network integrated voice response (NIVR) platform by the institution for transferring calls, there is no longer a correlation between an IVR port and a NIVR port, because there is such a large pool of ports. Thus, there was no way for the switch to ascertain which port on the NIVR had the incoming call to begin with.
The ANI field is usually the location for the telephone number of the telephone originating the call. Formerly, the ANI was delivered to any one of a number of automated call directors (ACD""s), for example, a PBX or telephone switch. Conventionally, in a remote IVR process, it was necessary to have a hard-line data system that married the original call coming into an NIVR to the site to which it was going.
There have been a variety of approaches to providing a definable integrated voice/data call transfer technique. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,930 to Gawrys et al. discloses a customer programmable integrated voice/data call transfer technique for use in telemarketing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,903 to Kohler et al. discloses automated call distributing equipment that uses the ANI to anticipate the needs of each calling party. Hence, the caller is automatically transferred/forwarded to an agent who is best suited to satisfy the callers needs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,809 to Voit discloses an intelligent network service control point (AIN SCP) with sufficient information to effectively route a customer initiated call to an agent to an appropriate destination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,562 to Scherer discloses a call processor which analyzes the ANI of a received call in view of info-indicator digits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,010 to McCalmont discloses a call center scheme where a customer service representative (CSR) receives a call via automated call distribution. The CSR may determine that the call should be transferred. The call is transferred to a second CSR with all the caller""s information along with a reason for the transfer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,051 to Hurd et al. discloses a method of coordinating a voice component and a data component of a call that arrives at a workstation of a first call center and transferring the call across a switching network to a second workstation at a second call center.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,809 to Voit discloses an intelligent network service control point (AIN SCP) with sufficient information to effectively route a customer initiated call to an appropriate destination.
However, despite these attempts to provide a network integrated voice response platform which permits alteration of the automatic number identification (ANI) so as to provide information about the call, to direct the call to appropriate service personnel, and to offer services and products to a caller, there still remains a need for such a system.
It is a feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a system and method for automated telephone message routing which imbeds information about an incoming caller in the ANI field, so that the information is available at the agent""s desktop, regardless of where the call is transferred by the system.
It is another feature and advantage of the present invention to provide an automated telephone message routing system which uses information about the caller embedded in the ANI field to route the caller to an agent specially trained to deal with the particular type of caller.
It is a further feature and advantage of the present invention to provide an automated telephone message routing system which uses information about the caller embedded in the ANI field to route the caller to a particular agent according to purchasing preferences of the caller.
It is an additional feature and advantage of the present invention to provide an automated telephone message routing system which uses information about the caller embedded in the ANI field to route the caller to a particular agent according to potential purchasing preferences of the caller.
To achieve the stated and other features, advantages and objects, an embodiment of the present invention provides a system and method for automated routing of telephone messages utilizing manipulated automatic number identification (ANI). The system and method of and embodiment of the present invention provides each call that comes into the integrated voice response (IVR) system with a session identification (ID) that is held onto by the host. In order to get the session ID to a call center and then back up to the host so that it can be matched, the system and method of the present invention utilizes the ANI field.
The ANI field is the usual location for the telephone number of the person who originated the call. The system and method of the present invention eliminates the need for the ANI field. The ten digits are used for information about the incoming calls, and the original ANI of the caller is discarded. For example, when a caller calls from the caller""s home, the ANI field is the caller""s home telephone number, such as the caller""s area code and seven digit telephone number. The system and method of the present invention, basically throws that information in the bit file and uses those ten digits to tell the financial institution something that it wants to know about the call, such as the session ID.
Formerly, the ANI was delivered to any one of a number of automated call directors (ACD""s), for example, a PBX or telephone switch. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the telephone switch passes what it thinks is the ANI field up to the host, but the host knows in fact that it is not an ANI. Rather, inside those ten digits is a five digit field that tells the system where to go in its temporary storage to get the information about the original call in the IVR in order to pop to the agent""s screen. Thus, the ANI becomes a dynamic field that is used to pass information about the caller to the host, as opposed to really knowing the original ANI, about which the system no longer cares.
In the past, in doing any kind of IVR process remotely, it was necessary to have a hard-line data process that married the original call coming into an NIVR to the site to which it was going in order to be serviced. It was necessary, for example, for the financial institution to have one site, for example, in California, where the NIVR was located, another site, for example, in Nevada, where the agents were located, and if it was necessary to transfer the call, for example, to Maryland, the call could be transferred, but the screen pop would be lost. The system and method of an embodiment of the present invention utilizes the manipulated ANI to divorce the requirement of having the two sites married. The system embeds information, for example, about the caller in the ANI field which is goes with the call for the life of the call. Therefore, no matter where the call ends up, the host can find the information about the call and present the screen pop to the agent.
These and other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part with become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention.